Ask Starwitch

Why Did I Dream About a
Morphing Demonic Creature?

Dear Starwitch,

I need help. I had a
creepy dream this morning.

In my dream, I was staying with my grandparents, and suddenly I saw a
black shadow outside. It was some kind of black creature. It didn't look
like a human but somehow still did, so I hid under the table (I don't
know why. I just knew it wasn't good if the creature saw me) Then it was
like I was in my grandpa's body and I let the creature into the living
room. Then I was in my own body again and I made the creature get out.
But I stayed outside and it kept shifting - sometimes it looked
like someone from the KKK, except it wore black clothes and had a white
face, and then it looked like a big black dog.

And there were two cats in my dream,
but they both tried to kill me. One of them was my own cat, the one that
is sitting in my window right now. Then someone called me cause they
wanted me to get rid of some demon that was sitting on the roof of the
house, but I said that I only knew the spell for getting big demons out
(I knew that I was a witch in my dream) and then I went into my room and
took my phone because I wanted to find some kind of spell to get rid of
the damn creatures. Then I said that I missed not being a witch because
my life was so much easier then.

What should I do, and what does the dream mean?? I have the feeling that
I should find some spells about banishing demons and weird black
creatures that wont leave me alone, and of course possessed cats, but
then if I think about the dream it's like it tells me not to go through
with becoming a witch. But I don't want to stop being a witch....

Please help me.

Dear Friend,

This isn't going to be the witchy/occult answer you want to hear, but it
will help you more than any occult answer ever will.

Your dreams at night are based on the memories you created recently,
whether those memories came from your own thoughts and fears, or talking
to other people, or watching something on TV, or listening to music, or
even going to church and hearing your preacher talk about Satan. Any of
those things (plus many others) can easily cause your mind to create a
dream like the one you had.

Your brain is like a computer. It stores everything that you do, think,
see, say, feel, read, write, etc. Then when you fall asleep, your brain
goes through each recent memory. It plays that memory to see what it's
about - that's when you have a dream about it - and then your brain
files that memory either in your long-term memory bank or your
easy-access memory bank, or the recycle bin (meaning it gets deleted).

Here's an example of how
it works.

Your brain plays a memory of staying the night with your grandparents,
causing you to dream that you're spending the night there, then it moves
on to your memory of so-called "shadow people" (which you might have
heard about on a witchcraft site or from a witch friend or wherever).
Your brain has to sort that memory, so it looks at similar evil memories
to see if there is a match or if the shadow person is new to the memory
bank. It goes through your memories of other threatening things, things
that bring up a similar emotion for you - the KKK, a big black dog,
demons - and decides whether to file it there or not. Every time your
brain pulls up a new or old memory, your dream changes and plays that
memory. This is how dreams keep morphing in weird ways that don't
usually make a lot of sense.

The point is this... Whatever you put into your brain is what you will
dream about. Usually, if you try hard enough, you can figure out where
the major themes in your dreams originated from - whether it was a
conversation you had, or a show you watched, a book you read, or just
something you were thinking about. Sometimes it's hard to remember,
possibly because that memory got tossed into the trash and all that's
left of it is your memory of the dream. Or it may have been filed in the
"hidden" folder with memories of traumatic events.

Dreams make so much more sense when you understand what your brain is
doing while you sleep.

I learned most of this information
from the PBS show
NOVA: What are Dreams? They have some amazing new scientific
research into dreams.

Now, if your "dreams" are actually
something more along the lines of astral projection, sleep paralysis,
and hypnagogic hallucinations (shadow people, old hags, weight on your
chest, etc.), you can check out the
Astral Projection pages
here. That's a whole nother world of dreaming.